Restoration

Dictionary of Biblical Words:

is Christ’s present grace in bringing back those of His sheep that have strayed from Himself or His paths; for a person may have departed in heart from Christ before his feet have begun to leave the right path. Restoration may thus be public or private. The first step in the path back is when the will ceases to go with the sin, and begins to take part with God against it; in short, when self-judgment begins. This is caused by the active love of Christ (though perhaps as yet unknown to the backslider), who nest applies, either directly or through some fellow disciple, the water to the feet (see John 13), which is the word bringing home to the heart the sense of sin against the love and work of Christ. The affections are thus reached and restored to Christ, and the soul then sets to work to set the ways right; but the work always begins where the point of departure began—with the heart. Thus the soul fully confesses its sin to God, and obtains the sense of forgiveness (which is not known apart from confession) (1 John 1), and is practically cleansed from the evil. The Lord then wipes the feet, by which is meant that the soul gets perfectly restored, and ceases to feel any distance or estrangement, though the fall must necessarily have taught a fresh lesson of the evil of the heart.